A Single Consideration For Retirement Planning

With divorce rates burgeoning among the Boomer generation, the chances of experiencing retirement as a single person are also increasing. Add the loss of a spouse through death and those odds increase to around 43% for those 65 and over. Neither the high divorce rate nor losing a spouse is anything new. But a generation or two ago, people were not living as long. Retirement consisted more of sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair for 10 to 15 years rather than running marathons at age 73 or spending the next 25 – 30 years making a business out of a former hobby. The number of people who have never married is also rising.

What this means for the advisory community is that a shift in retirement planning focus is in the offing. It typically costs a single person 40% - 50% more in living expenses. This means single people (on top of the ill-preparedness of the Boomer generation, in general) may not have been able to save as much as couples. Yet current retirement planning is focused on couples. It makes sense that couples are more likely to have planned financially for retirement because there is consideration for the welfare of another person after one dies.

Longer retirements, whether married or single, also pose health issues over a long period of time. With the largest segment of the population facing these issues, consideration of single retirees by financial and other advisors should revamp the entire retirement planning landscape.